INTRODUCTION

Biological adhesives offer impressive performances in their natural context and have the potential to inspire novel, superior industrial adhesives for an increasing variety of high-tech applications. The main objective of this Action is to gain new understanding relating to the mode of action of biological adhesives so as to facilitate the development of synthetic counterparts with improved function. These bio-inspired adhesives will provide more elegant solutions to contemporary engineering and biomedical adhesive requirements and will additionally provide a platform for future technological innovation that requires adhesion in hostile conditions as a prerequisite. Using an iterative, multidisciplinary approach, structures, functions and principles of natural models can be experimentally studied, theoretically analyzed and prototyped in order to bring innovative bio-inspired adhesives to the market.

Our Action aims at uniting widespread and diverse European expertise in the fields of biological and technological adhesives (biology, physics, chemistry and engineering), streamlining and pooling knowledge, methods and techniques, avoiding duplication of effort, decreasing costs, and accelerating scientific and technological progress in Europe.